Review: SUN, MOON, ICE AND SNOW by Jessica Day George

SUN, MOON, ICE AND SNOW
by Jessica Day George
336 pages
Published January 8th 2008 by Bloomsbury

About:
Blessed—or cursed—with an ability to understand animals, the Lass (as she’s known to her family) has always been an oddball. And when an isbjorn (polar bear) seeks her out, and promises that her family will become rich if only the Lass will accompany him to his castle, she doesn’t hesitate. But the bear is not what he seems, nor is his castle, which is made of ice and inhabited by a silent staff of servants. Only a grueling journey on the backs of the four winds will reveal the truth: the bear is really a prince who’s been enchanted by a troll queen, and the Lass must come up with a way to free him before he’s forced to marry a troll princess.

Review:
I have had the great opportunity to meet Jessica Day George on several occasions. She is a blast, and such an inventive person. You can feel the creativity flowing out of her. I absolutely LOVED her novel PRINCESS OF THE MIDNIGHT BALL, so I bought and read this book when I saw her at an author event (photo on right is from that event).

I really really liked this book! I can tell that George put a lot of love and research into this one. It reminded me a lot of George's voice in Midnight Ball combined with more of a Shannon Hale feeling, because of the lesser known story and setting.

There were elements to this story that my brain said "pay attention to that" but it couldn't figure out why until it was revealed. I like that in a book. If the plot can keep me guessing in a good way and surprise me with the answer that is a great thing!

**gets a bit spoilery here...**

My ONLY complaint has nothing to do with what George has done here!

My complaint is that I watched a really really badly done cheap movie of a story about a young girl who goes off to live with a bear, who is really a prince, and she's not supposed to look at his face and she messes up and so the witch takes him away and she goes to save him from having to marry the witch. Not EXACTLY the same story, but pretty similar with a few elements twisted around. I assume it is one of the stories that George based this novel on.

Having seen that really bad movie that made me laugh at the ridiculous effects even when I couldn't turn it off because the story was interesting kind of messed with my pleasure in reading this, because elements that should not have been predictable were (like the fact that looking at the "nightly visitor"s face was a bad idea).